February 17

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [or "trials"], knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. — Jas 1:2-3

For patience, when the rough winds blow!
For patience, when our hopes are fading,—
When visible things all backward go,
And nowhere seems the power of aiding!
God still enfolds thee with His viewless hand,
And leads thee surely to the Fatherland.

N. L. FROTHINGHAM, from the German.

We have need of patience with ourselves and with others; with those below, and those above us, and with our own equals; with those who love us and those who love us not; for the greatest things and for the least; against sudden inroads of trouble, and under our daily burdens; disappointments as to the weather, or the breaking of the heart; in the weariness of the body, or the wearing of the soul; in our own failure of duty, or others’ failure toward us; in every-day wants, or in the aching of sickness or the decay of age; in disappointment, bereavement, losses, injuries, reproaches; in heaviness of the heart; or its sickness amid delayed hopes. In all these things, from childhood’s little troubles to the martyr’s sufferings, patience is the grace of God, whereby we endure evil for the love of God. —E. B. PUSEY.